Friday, August 15, 2008

I'm not so sure we should rely too heavily on video game manufacturers to grade NHL talents, but since they've put the numbers out there, we might as well have a look.

Here are a few leaders lists for various attributes in the game:

First Name

Last Name

Speed

1

Jay

Bouwmeester

95

2

Brian

Gionta

94

3

Simon

Gagne

94

4

Martin

Havlat

94

5

Scott

Niedermayer

94

6

David

Legwand

93

7

Jarome

Iginla

93

8

Matthew

Lombardi

93

9

Ales

Hemsky

93

10

Pierre-Marc

Bouchard

93

11

Marian

Gaborik

93

12

Ryan

Kesler

93

13

Patrick

Marleau

93

I say the NHL has a skate-off at the 2009 all-star game between these 13. My money would likely be on Gaborik.

First Name

Last Name

Accel.

1

Jay

Bouwmeester

94

2

Scott

Niedermayer

94

3

Brian

Gionta

94

4

Martin

Havlat

94

5

Jarome

Iginla

93

6

Ryan

Kesler

93

7

Henrik

Zetterberg

93

8

Marian

Gaborik

93

9

Ales

Hemsky

93

10

Pavel

Datsyuk

93

11

David

Legwand

93

12

Pierre-Marc

Bouchard

93

First Name

Last Name

Checking

1

Dustin

Brown

99

2

Zdeno

Chara

99

3

Georges

Laraque

99

4

Derek

Boogaard

97

5

Chris

Pronger

96

6

Garnet

Exelby

96

7

Dion

Phaneuf

95

8

Robyn

Regehr

95

9

Cam

Janssen

94

10

Vitaly

Vishnevski

94

11

Brian

McGrattan

94

12

Wade

Belak

94

Brown, Chara, Phaneuf, etc., are good choices, but some of the heavyweights get marks for hitting that are really related to fighting.

First Name

Last Name

Toughness

1

Zdeno

Chara

99

2

Georges

Laraque

99

3

Saku

Koivu

99

4

Derek

Boogaard

97

5

George

Parros

97

6

Scott

Parker

97

7

Jordin

Tootoo

95

8

Jody

Shelley

95

9

Donald

Brashear

95

10

Peter

Forsberg

95

I honestly have no clue what Saku Koivu's doing on the list, but unless it's a mistake, he can bench Boogaard in the game.

First Name

Last Name

Slap shot power

1

Zdeno

Chara

99

2

Sheldon

Souray

99

3

Chris

Pronger

96

4

Brian

Rolston

95

5

Joe

Thornton

95

6

Dustin

Byfuglien

95

7

Jarret

Stoll

93

8

Dion

Phaneuf

93

9

Sami

Salo

93

10

Fredrik

Modin

93

Byfuglien's going to be more well-known for his big shot as he plays a few more years in the league. Mostly good choices here, although I'm a little surprised at Thornton ranking this high.

First Name

Last Name

Wrist shot power

1

Zdeno

Chara

95

2

Jarome

Iginla

92

3

Chris

Pronger

91

4

Sheldon

Souray

90

5

Joe

Thornton

90

6

Dustin

Byfuglien

90

7

Ilya

Kovalchuk

90

8

Bryan

McCabe

90

9

Alexander

Ovechkin

90

10

Patrick

Marleau

90

11

Evgeni

Malkin

90

12

Dany

Heatley

90

13

Teemu

Selanne

90

14

Mats

Sundin

90

Joe Sakic and Markus Naslund strike me as two names that could be up there. I'm sure there are others.

First Name

Last Name

Deking

1

Pavel

Datsyuk

98

2

Sidney

Crosby

97

3

Ales

Hemsky

96

4

Brian

Gionta

96

5

Jason

Spezza

95

6

Evgeni

Malkin

95

7

Alexander

Ovechkin

95

8

Ilya

Kovalchuk

94

9

Martin

Havlat

93

10

Jussi

Jokinen

93

11

Pierre-Marc

Bouchard

93

12

Patrik

Elias

93

Yes, they can all dangle. No Rick Nash though.

First Name

Last Name

Defensive awareness

1

Nicklas

Lidstrom

96

2

Zdeno

Chara

95

3

Chris

Pronger

95

4

Sergei

Zubov

95

5

Peter

Forsberg

95

6

Scott

Niedermayer

95

7

Chris

Chelios

95

8

Mike

Peca

95

9

Adam

Foote

94

10

Stephane

Yelle

94

I don't know that Chelios belongs here, although "awareness" is tough to define. Lidstrom should probably receive 100.

First Name

Last Name

DUR

1

Olli

Jokinen

99

2

John

Madden

98

3

Brad

Richards

98

4

Patrick

Marleau

97

5

Vaclav

Prospal

97

6

Scott

Gomez

96

7

Marian

Hossa

96

8

Ilya

Kovalchuk

96

9

Cory

Sarich

96

The amazing, unkillable Olli Jokinen hasn't missed a game in more than five years. He's missed seven games since 1999.

Now here are the lowest of the lows, where players don't want to fall in. I'm only looking at skaters, of which the game apparently includes 721.

Only one skater registers under 70 for speed: Flyers defenceman Mike Rathje, who's a 65.

First Name

Last Name

Accel.

1

Luke

Richardson

65

2

Mike

Rathje

66

3

Mike

Sgroi

66

4

Brian

McGrattan

67

5

Raitis

Ivanans

68

6

Reed

Low

68

7

Derian

Hatcher

68

8

Joe

Rullier

69

9

Jassen

Cullimore

69

10

Derek

Boogaard

69

11

Darren

McCarty

69

No speed demons there, that's for sure.

First Name

Last Name

Checking

1

Kristian

Huselius

57

2

Markus

Naslund

60

3

Brad

Zancanaro

60

4

Martin

Kariya

60

5

Mike

Ribeiro

60

6

Petr

Prucha

60

7

Patrice

Brisebois

64

8

Eric

Perrin

64

9

Dean

McAmmond

64

10

Marek

Svatos

64

Huselius is apparently worse at checking than all of the career minor leaguers in the game, including Mr. Zancanaro, who I've never heard of. He was apparently one of the top defensive forwards in college hockey when he played for Boston U, however.

21 Comments:

Sakic not being on the wrist shot list is a pretty major oversight. And you're right about the heavyweights in the checking category -- McGratton and Belak never hit anyone because they couldn't get into position in time.

As a Flyers fan, I got a laugh out of Forsberg being in the top couple of players for Toughness. He's a physical player, but his body ain't as tough as he wants to play these days.

And Rathje hasn't played in almost two years now, and will be on the LTIR for all this season, due to his lingering back problems. He was horrible when he played, anyway. Looks like he's represented well in the game, although I'm surprised he's even in it, to be honest.

I guess I'll continue to pimp out the Montreal players that could be considered on this list...

Wrist Shot power: Alexei Kovalev and Andrei Kostitsyn better have strong ratings, Kovalev probably deserves to be in the top 10, and also up there for deking. Actually, anyone who has seen what he pulls off in his training video would think he deserves a 115+ rating, but he only shows flashes of that wizardry in game action.

The Koivu rating is obviously a different kind of toughness. It'd be funny if he dropped the gloves in this game because of his toughness rating, though. He's never been in a fight in his NHL career.

Montreal's a really fast team, but I don't know if there's a real standout that could be a top 10-15 guy. Plekanec is incredibly efficient, but doesn't have a big stride.

BTW, James, that was a hell of a performance by your old compatriot Dylan Armstrong in the shotput. Here's to a podium showing in 2012 for him.

BTW, James, that was a hell of a performance by your old compatriot Dylan Armstrong in the shotput. Here's to a podium showing in 2012 for him.

I saw that. When he was interviewed afterwards and they talked about how he switched from hammer throwing a few years ago, I thought "just three years experience and a career-best and Canadian record in his event." Good future for him.

i cant believe Curtis Glencross isnt on the top speed list. and Horcoff winning the fastest skater at the All-Star game didnt get him any credit? Datsyuk not being in the top defensive awareness players after getting like 140 takeaways (maybe some were cheats from home statisticians), plus the Selke?

simple solution: edit player > save roster

seems like they wasted more time making the World of Warcraft portion of the game than actually caring how "real" their stat categories are. oh well. give it a year and it will be worth 10$ at your local used store.

Wow I had no idea Bowmeister is that fast,he doesn't seem to showcase it that much, great player-wish he was a Leaf--hahaha/ he'd be a difference maker/ Niklas Kronwall- wasen't he a human wrecking ball in the playoffs for Detroit? I read that his checking is rated at 74-that's just dumb-put him in the high 80's category at least.

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About Me

A sportswriter at The Globe and Mail, James covers the NHL and the game of hockey. He is a member of the Professional Hockey Writers' Association, a radio and TV analyst with TSN and was the NHL network manager at SB Nation from 2008 to 2010. A graduate of Thompson Rivers and Ryerson universities, James grew up in Kamloops, B.C. — one of Canada's great hockey cities — and was a season ticket holder in the Blazers' glory years.

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